Nature teaches many invaluable lessons. Leaves expand and maintain their integrity through the use of TURGOR Pressure.
Turgor pressure is incredibly potent. It is powerful, versatile and permits absolute precision of control. Trees stay upright and maintain their structure primarily as a result of Turgor Pressure. Complex plant and leaf shapes are achieved through the use of Turgor Pressure. Life ceases without turgor pressure.
Plants achieve and control this Turgor Pressure through the regulation of solute concentrations of solutes within the conductance vessels (xylem). A greater concentration of these solutes coupled with a semi-permeable membrane that permits the free transit of water result in the production of a pressure known as Osmotic Pressure. The Osmotic Pressure of individual conductance vessels integrated over an entire structure, such as a leaf or tree, is termed Turgor Pressure.
It would be too difficult and cumbersome to replicate this complex system. However, there are many applications where this principle would be of great utility. Substitution of Osmotic type pressure with simple hydraulic pressure reduces the complexity of the system and makes practical application possible.
One situation where this technology is of use is where large devices with predominantly empty interiors are employed. Transport of such enclosures in a collapsed geometry is more economical. Houses would constitute such an application. Underwater enclosures would constitute another.
There are many applications where there is only a very limited amount of space to introduce a device. The ability to deploy such a device through the provided space without the necessity to expand this access space is useful. A gastrointestinal tube may be such an application, particularly one required for gastric lavage. Ewald tubes, as they are called, are enormous, painful and invariably cause injury during insertion. They are also life saving. The ability to introduce a small tube, but expand it into a large lumen would be of immeasurable utility.
There are many applications where devices can cause injury over time. Particularly for biological applications, the ability to only expand the devices when necessary can be of great utility. An endotracheal tube used for connecting a respirator to a patient's lung is one such application. Current endotracheal tubes employ a cuff to retain the tube within the trachea. This cuff causes necrosis over time, in some cases in as short of an interval as 72 hours. A more compliant tube with a better regulated geometry would save countless lives.
There are many applications (predominantly biological) where precise remote control of geometries is useful. There are similarly many applications where the ability to control movement, as well as the shape of a specific device is vital. Catheterization devices are such an application. The ability to steer tubes is currently achieved via the integration of wires within the lumen wall. This is incredibly expensive and cumbersome. It is also deadly, as it results in mishaps in eyen the best hands. And it squanders enormous luminal capacity due to dimensional overhead.
There are many applications where multiple lumens are required within the same device to permit all the requisite functions. Endoscopy equipment is such an application. The use of the turgor principle permits precise, but very low cost construction of such devices that maintain luminal diameters that are impossible with current technology.
One further unique area where turgor technology can be of great utility is in the capture and transduction of motive power. Sailboats, for example, utilize complex arrays of fixed laminates to capture the power of the wind. Precise control is achieved through the regulation of the deployment geometries of these laminates, known as sails. Hydraulic control permits selective opening and closing of different regions within a permanently deployed sail. It also permits impossibly rapid balancing of an array composing such a sail. Given the incredible cost of fuel, as well as engine maintenance, of powerboats, is envisioned that application of turgor type of construction will result in sailboats displacing powerboats as the predominant type of watercraft.
Lexicon
Turgor Pressure in common parlance is the outward pressure and tone of living tissues. This is not the original definition. The original and appropriate definition of Turgor Pressure for the purpose of this patent application is the pressure exerted within the conductance vessels (“xylem”) of plants and their leaves.
Hydraulic channel is defined as a channel with sufficient structural integrity and sufficiently low compliance to transmit and maintain pressure. NOTE: hydraulic channels for the purpose of this application do NOT require the flow of fluids.
A working fluid is defined as a substance of variable shape that can transmit a pressure via a hydraulic channel. A working fluid can be a gas, liquid, plasma or other substance with the requisite characteristics.
A hydraulic channel array subsegment is the basic subunit of this invention and is defined as a complex of hydraulic channels that is interconnected in such a manner as to maintain a uniform pressure within all channels that comprise it.
Compaction (“scrunching”) is defined as application of an external force to shape the device prior to deployment into the desired deployment geometry.
Dimensional overhead is defined as the difference between the effective diameter and the overall manufactured diameter of a device. For example, the dimensional diameter of an endotracheal tube is the difference between the central lumen that transmits the air and the outside diameter of the tube.